Snow doesn’t faze our nesting hawks

I get a lot of questions about birds. Some are very specific, such as trying to identify an unfamiliar species in a yard.

Some are more general, such as, “Why do I have fewer birds at my feeder this year than I did in the past?” or “Where do birds go when it’s raining or snowing?”

Well, let me tell you a story.

When people ask me about snow’s impact, most don’t realize that some birds – notably some hawks and owls – nest early enough to be affected by snow on a regular basis. Great horned owls are on eggs in February. Bald eagles, red-tailed hawks and common ravens are brooding eggs in March, if not a little earlier in some cases.

This crossed my mind Thursday morning as I write this column, looking out at a landscape deeply covered in snow. The day before I was checking out a well-built stick nest near the Waterbury-Wolcott line to see if a red-tailed hawk was in residence.

There didn’t seem to be a hawk present, but I knew that if a pair had taken up occupancy, they could handle the storm that was brewing.

I’d seen their coping ability first hand.

When I lived in rural northwestern New Jersey, the farmland with scattered woodlots provided ideal nesting sites for red-tailed hawks, and I’d have several nests under observation every spring. One memorable March storm dropped a foot of snow, and once I got out I drove to the closest hawk nest to see what had happened.

A mound of snow covered the nest, and looking closely I saw the female’s head poking out through the pile. Given the timing of the storm, it appeared the bird had sat there for at least 24 hours, keeping her eggs warm, while the snow accumulated.

Because this happened during normal nesting season, there was nothing unusual about it. Red-tailed hawks, widespread and common, have to routinely deal with March snow.

In another storm-related note, before checking the aforementioned nest Thursday I swung by Lakewood Park in Waterbury. Stormy weather always offers the chance of finding interesting waterfowl that have dropped onto lakes and ponds.

Because the storm hadn’t really gotten going yet, I wasn’t expecting much. But this is why it’s always worth a look – huddled together in tight formation on the big pond was a flock of 10 long-tailed ducks, a species usually found on saltwater in our region and the first ones I’d ever seen in Waterbury.